


Finding Family

by NyeLung



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Ignores TLJ, Rey is a child of the Force, all the Force ghosts, rey is being adopted by Force ghosts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-04-20 08:37:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14257089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyeLung/pseuds/NyeLung
Summary: On Ahch-To Rey finds her family. It's a big and dysfunctional family and they are all dead but it's her family.





	1. Obi-Wan Kenobi

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Narina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narina/gifts).



> This is basically a collection of more or less loose oneshots about Rey being adopted by different Force ghosts.

### Chapter 1 – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Rey frowns and starts again with the movements Master Skywalker has shown her. Whatever she tries, she doesn't get it done the way he does. Somehow she's not fast enough or not precise enough and her arms won't move the right way with the sword and, basically, Rey would rather continue fighting with her staff.

“Just do that feint a bit faster and the next movement a bit slower, then you've got it”, a voice suddenly speaks up and Rey turns around and hits the air with the lightsaber. The speaker is a blue-shining ghost, flickering between a youthful appearance and the image of a much older man.

“Who are you?”, she demands to know. 

She doesn't know him, can't place his face and, actually, as little as she knows about this whole Jedi business, it is terrifying her. This is a ghost. A real ghost. Dead people shouldn't be floating in the air and giving her advice.

“That's a dangerous weapon you carry. If I weren't dead already, you'd have killed me,” the ghost says with humour in his voice. “I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi and I taught Luke Skywalker for a while.”

“So, you're a Jedi, too?”

The ghost shrugs his shoulders. “Technically, no. It's been a long time since I was part of the Order. I was taught to be a Jedi, however.”

“Why are you here? Why me?” Rey is confused. The ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi is confusing her with his cryptic answers.

“You have potential and the way Luke is right now, he can't teach you to bring it all out. I can teach you what he can't. Luke is doing his best but there's only so much that can be learnt from ancient texts instead of real people.” He rubs his temples. “I should have taught him more. Instead I let myself be killed and now he is repeating my mistakes.”

Rey doesn't know what to say, so she stays silent, waits for the ghost of Kenobi to continue talking. She wonders where she has heard his name before.

“He should be teaching you this but he can't because I haven't taught him better.” The ghost turns his back to her, watching the cliffs where Master Skywalker is probably sitting and meditating. “I will teach you what you need to know, young Rey.” With this he turns back to her. “I ask but one thing of you. Help me to save Luke from my failings. Don't let him repeat the past.”

Rey is growing more and more confused with this ghost. It's as though he's talking to someone who knows more about him than Rey does. “What failings? I don't even know you. And how could I save Master Skywalker?”

Kenobi is looking past her again, watching the waves build and crash. “It has to be you. He's shut out everyone he knows. He's even shut himself off from the Force. He doesn't hear me any longer, not since that … incident.” Kenobi shudders. “It was so much like that time...” His form lingers a while longer on a man in his thirties with tired eyes.

“But he's barely talking to me,” Rey protests.

“But he _is_ talking to you. That is more than any of us have achieved so far.” He puts a hand on her shoulder. It tingles. “You can do it. I beg you to do it.”

Rey blinks in confusion. She's never experienced something like this before. Someone begging her to help her? That's new and strange and she doesn't know what to answer. She can say no and that's a thrill.

“Just … think about it. You don't have to do it but I think you are the only one who could.” Kenobi seems sincere and worried. He doesn't seem to like asking for help or maybe he feels uncomfortable with troubling someone else with his problems? Rey doesn't know. “And your form is sloppy. You move like you wave a stick and not a lightsaber.” The begging Jedi is gone and instead she is faced with an instructor of sorts, maybe. Rey's not sure.

She thinks about an answer, something snippy to throw back at him. Instead she just glowers. It's not like she ever had a real teacher.

“No need to be embarrassed,” Kenobi says with a smile. “Give me that lightsaber and I can show you. I remember the kata that you are currently trying. Master Giiett was a perfectionist and his drills were … tedious.”

Warily, Rey hands the lightsaber to the Jedi ghost. It feels strange to give the weapon away that she had fought for.

The moment Kenobi touches the lightsaber, he grows pale. “That's … I can't. Take it.” He shoves it back into her hands, still pale as white ashes. He's breathing heavily and seems to fight down tears.

Rey clutches the lightsaber in her hands and wonders what to do. She has never in her life been confronted with such a strange person. She has never had to console someone.

“You should throw it away”, Kenobi finally says. “This lightsaber has seen so much darkness, it has become tainted with it.” He shivers. “Just throw it away, far away. Build a new one.”

Rey looks at him. Is that why Master Skywalker threw it away? Maybe Master Skywalker and Kenobi both can hear the screams that follow Rey into her nightmares since she first touched the lightsaber. Maybe it would be good to throw it away. She hesitates. “How do I build a new one? How do I train to become a Jedi without it?”

“Those are good questions for another day.” His face looks still haunted whenever his eyes find the lightsaber in Rey's hand. “Put it away for a while and I can show you the movements without the saber. I can teach you their meaning if you want to.”

Rey nods carefully. She doesn't like holding the lightsaber, anyway. The screams of children are torture and they always make her want to throw up. This seems like a good new opportunity.

“Now, watch closely.” Kenobi sheds his outer robes and they vanish. Now she can see his movements far better. “You begin the kata with this … “


	2. Mace Windu

### Chapter 2 – Mace Windu

She sighs and walks down the mountain again. Master Skywalker has completely brushed her off when she has tried to mention his apparent lack of connection to the Force. She tries to not let it get to her but it's hard. She has always loved the stories about Luke Skywalker and the man himself is so different.

She sighs again and falls down in the grass. She wishes for BB-8 to be here. Or Finn. Or even that pilot Poe he's kept talking about. She just wants to talk to someone like her who's never met Luke Skywalker before and who's maybe feeling as strange as she does. She's... maybe she is disappointed that he's not like the man in the legends.

Then she feels it. There is someone else. Like Master Kenobi who has helped her for a while yesterday and then vanished. It's not Master Kenobi, though, so Rey gets up and looks around. “Who are you?”, she demands to know.

It's another ghost who appears to be sitting next to her now. His legs are crossed in a comfortable fashion and his hands lie in his laps. He's bald and his face seems to be continuously frowning. The blue shining does nothing to hide his dark complexion. He looks a bit like Finn, Rey thinks. She notices that she's not afraid. Master Kenobi has been very nice although he is a ghost and she is pretty sure that this one will not harm her as well. He seems nice albeit stern.

“Fek,” the ghost swears and immediately looks like he wants to take back that word. “I am very sorry. I forgot my manners.” The ghost nods slightly. “My name is Mace Windu and I am the former Master of the Order.”

“So what do you want?”, Rey inquires curiously.

“I could feel you in the Force today during your meditation.” This Mace Windu is very different from Master Kenobi. He keeps looking directly at her, searching her with his eyes. “I wanted to see you for myself.”

“Why?”

The ghost folds his hands. “I admit that I was curious. I could feel your strength and needed to confirm something.”

“What?” Rey'd love for him to speak plainly. Are all Jedi this difficult to talk to?

“You ask a lot of questions, young one.” There's a slight smile on Windu's face but it vanishes immediately. “Let's just say that you're not the first powerful Force user around and the last time … didn't end well.”

“Kylo Ren”, Rey says.

The ghost shakes his head. “Kylo Ren is a petulant child. I'm talking about Darth Vader.” He makes a pause. “Although Vader also started as a petulant child and we should have seen it coming.” Now there is something in the ghost's eyes that Rey has seen already yesterday. It's the same look that Kenobi has shown. She's not sure what it means. “I wanted to see whether you would be another Vader.”

Rey sighs. “Master Skywalker seems to think so”, she admits. “He's afraid of teaching me. The little he shows me I practically have to force out of him.”

Windu chuckles. “He's a Skywalker. They like to be overly dramatic.”

Rey giggles and then stops herself. She shouldn't be laughing about the man she hopes to teach her. “Master Kenobi said that I should help him get Master Skywalker back.”

“Good luck with that.” Windu huffs a breath. “Skywalkers are a difficult bunch.”

“You talk like you know Master Skywalker?” And here Rey has thought that Luke Skywalker came from nowhere when there have been no Jedi and has started them anew.

“I watched Luke Skywalker now and then. I was occupied with other people at the time.” There's a hint of longing in the ghost's eyes and Rey wonders who he is thinking of. “But I am very familiar with his father and they are alike in some aspects. Especially the sulking.”

“Darth Vader was sulking?” Rey has a hard time believing that. She's also not sure whether Master Skywalker is actually sulking. He just seems... troubled. Running away, maybe.

“Not sure about Vader. I'm talking about Anakin Skywalker.” Windu looks at her and notices her confusion. “Vader was a creature born from Anakin Skywalker's anger and insecurities and the manipulations of Sidious. Vader was not Luke Skywalker's father, he was just a puppet. Luke Skywalker's father was Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi.” Windu scoffs. “The hero without fear.”

“I know the legends. Did he really rescue the Chancellor from the Invisible Hand?”

The ghost nods. “He did it with Kenobi's help. That was shortly before the war ended.” His eyes turn grim and dark.

“Was he really like in the stories?” Rey can't help it. She has grown up with stories and legends and now she has the chance to hear more about them.

Windu thinks for a long time. “Partially. He was a great pilot, great fighter. He saved a lot of people, won many battles. But he was also rash. Easily obsessed. Angry. Scared of losing people dear to him.”

Rey tilts her head in confusion. “Why is that a bad thing? What is wrong with being afraid of losing loved ones?”

The ghost closes his eyes. “I don't know any longer. It's what we believed, what we had been taught in the old Jedi Order.” He looks at her again and his eyes are more serious than in their whole talk this far. “We were taught that to be compassionate, we had to treat everyone equally. That to do the right thing meant not having attachments to anyone so we would not hold one person in higher regard than another.” He is still looking at her, so serious. Rey understands that he has thought about this for a long time, that this is important. She also thinks she could never do it. No attachments? What about Finn? What about BB-8? What about Chewbacca? What about the Resistance? “I'm not sure any longer whether this was the right way. We were detached and I like to believe that we were just in our judgements, impartial at least. But we also forgot to think like normal people. We were so caught up in our philosophical debates about attachments, that maybe, we forgot the power bonds can hold.” He takes a deep breath. “And yet I still can't think that we were wrong to ban attachments.”

“It sounds cold,” Rey says. It sounds cold and very lonely to her and she doesn't want to be lonely.

“Maybe it is,” Windu admits. “But tell me this, young one, if you could only save one, Finn or a ship full of strangers, how would you choose? Could you put the needs of the many above your attachments?”

Rey doesn't know. Finn is her first human friend. He has been there when she needed him. But he is only one man and a ship full of people holds so many lives …. She doesn't know but maybe, or maybe not even maybe, she would choose Finn.

“How do you know about Finn?”, she asks.

“He is one of the people I watched out for and protected as well as I could.”

“But the First Order did terrible things to him.” Rey stops herself. She doesn't know any specifics. Finn wouldn't talk about it but she knows. Not only has Kylo Ren stabbed him. Finn's wounds by the First Order are older. “I don't know what exactly,” she adds calmer.

“I do,” Windu admits and he sounds close to heartbroken. “But I am only a ghost. I cannot interfere with the living. I can only watch and bear witness and sometimes give advice to those willing to listen.”

Rey thinks that he sounds sad. She wonders what he has seen and lived through. She also wonders what he could teach her. Since Master Kenobi has not appeared yet, it can't hurt to learn from another teacher, right?  
“I'm willing to listen. Can you teach me?”

It's the first time the ghost of Mace Windu smiles sincerely. “I can. What do you want to learn first?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now... why would Mace Windu watch over Finn?^^  
> Anyway, I couldn't resist to impart a bit of headcanon here. In my headcanon Mace Windu had a real foul mouth when he was younger until his Master T'ra Saa (look her up, she's awesome) did her very best to get him out of that habit. Anyway, sometimes he relapses.  
> And of course Mace is bitching about Anakin here. That boy got him killed by association, after all. But he's also had a lot of time to think about it all and so he's a lot calmer than he would have been directly during Order 66.


	3. Chapter 3 - Two mentors and a visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, another chapter. Though, somehow, this chapter just did whatever it wanted. It clubbed me down and searched my pockets for plot it could use and then threw it all together in some Frankensteinian abomination. I still like it.

### Chapter 3 – Two mentors and a visitor

Rey feels watched. She probably is being watched considering that she can feel another presence in her vicinity. It's not Master Skywalker with that open wound he bleeds into the Force. It's also not Kenobi, all soft-spoken words and raw pain. It was the sharp edges and harsh light of Windu, she thinks after a while. He's shining as bright as Finn but he feels colder, more distant. Maybe because he is dead, maybe because it's his nature.

"Master Windu," she says respectfully. "Does this mean that you will continue my training?"

"I certainly hope so." Mace Windu inclines his head in some way of greeting. "If only you had been born in the days of the Republic. I would gladly have taken you as my Padawan."

Rey cocks her head. "What is a Padawan?"

"A - " The ghost looks stunned. "Of course, you come from Jakku. You probably haven't heard anything about Jedi except the stuff spacers tell." He rubs his bald head. "A Padawan, to answer your first question, is a student, an apprentice of sorts. In my time every Master had one Padawan-learner and taught them everything they knew." Now he looks directly at her. "Tell me, do you know what a Jedi is?"

Rey mulls the question over for a while. She has an idea of the Jedi but she's not sure whether that's what Master Windu expects. "A warrior," she finally says. "Someone who helps people and does ... things ... with the Force?"

"And what is the Force?"

"It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and ... makes things float." Rey is pretty sure that that is not the right answer. But how should she know? No one's telling her anything and Master Skywalker just ignores her.

"That's .. not exactly what the Force is." He rubs his head again. "We will have to start at the very beginning."

Suddenly they are interrupted by something appearing out of thin air. Where there just had been nothing, there was suddenly someone. Kenobi, Rey analyses the Force.

Master Windu jumps in surprise. “Fekking bastard son of a karking Sith! Kenobi!” He settles down again. “You are not supposed to use that shielding-technique to sneak up on people."

"Well, what else would I use it for?" Kenobi shrugs. "I'm dead."

"He wasn't there. How can he just appear like that?" Rey is confused. She's new to all this Force stuff but that shouldn't be possible. She had always been able to tell when someone was close.

"That was a Force technique used mostly by Shadows," Master Kenobi explains. "I learnt it for an undercover mission."

"Kenobi, stand back. I was just about to teach her right from the beginning."

"But I wanted to teach her more of that kata," the younger Force ghost protests. At least he looks younger.

"I was here first."

Rey starts to feel like back on Jakku where scrappers would argue over who got to use a certain tool.

"Actually, I found her first."

"And then you didn't show up."

"I was busy."

"Then be busy again."

Rey doesn't flinch when she feels another presence in the Force while the two Masters are bickering.

"It's tiresome, isn't it?", another Force ghost appears next to her. He feels old and cold in a way. Also dark. "The young ones are still so full of energy."

The Force ghost looks like an old man with a tattoo around one eye. He's wearing some kind of long, dark robes adorned with metal and glowing things. Rey doesn't know a name. He also has something around his neck and chin that looks like it's protecting him. "And who are you?"

The ghost raises his eyebrows. The tattoo around his one eyes shifts with the movement, red ink looking like blood. "Not very polite, are you? I should teach you some manners." The air crackles with unseen lightning and it makes her hair stand up. "But I will refrain from doing so. You will learn soon enough. I am Darth Thanaton, formerly of the Dark Council of the Sith Empire. I oversaw the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge."

Rey thinks hard for a moment whether she's heard stories about a Darth Thanaton but she can only remember Darth Vader. "Never heard of you." That seems to put a damper on the ghost's mood.

"You should have," he says after a while. "That planet you come from, Jakku, it belonged to me once. I turned it into the barren world it is now when its inhabitants dared to defy me."

"Why would you do something like that?" Rey doesn't understand it. Why would anyone want to turn anything into a desert? Deserts are terrible. The chafing sand is everywhere and it's hot and dry and there's never enough water - it makes Ahch-To seem like luxury.

"I was young and foolish. The people of Jakku rebelled against the Empire and it was my task to put them back in place." He looks far away now. Rey wonders whether he sees the past. "But they just wouldn't bow and kneel. So I destroyed everything they had before their eyes." There's a shadow of a smile on his lips and it makes Rey shudder. "Of course, the people of Jakku didn't bow willingly then. But I forced them on their knees and watched them die together with their planet. I was foolish to think that I could stop that rebellion with power and death." He looks at her and he is cold, so cold. "But there never was another rebellion against me. They all knew their place then."

Rey shudders and she has to fight to keep standing. She thinks she has to puke. This Force ghost... she can feel the horror of so many deaths cling to him. "How?," she presses out. "How can you say that so calmly?"

"More than three thousand years to think about it, make it seem rather dull." His eyes are red like blood, Rey notices now. But they are also cold and milky like life has left them years ago. "I do not regret my decisions. Would I do it differently now? Yes."

Rey shakes her head. "Why are you telling me this?" She just wants him to leave. She wants his cold dead eyes gone.

The ghost shrugs. "I was bored and I wanted to test the kind of person you are." Then he shifts. The old man vanishes and is replaced by a younger version of himself. Still the bloodied tattoo around his eye, still the blood in his eyes. But he looks vital. Strong. The protection around his neck is gone and his robes have changed into long, black robes that are easy to move in. "You are about what I expected."

Rey isn't sure whether that is good or bad. Thankfully, this is the moment that Masters Windu and Kenobi stop their bickering to finally notice the new company.

"What are you doing here?", Master Windu asks, nose wrinkled in disgust. "She's not one of yours, Sith."

Rey wants to ask what a Sith is. She waits instead, lets it play out.

"Neither does she belong to you, Jedi." The ghost of Darth Thanaton smiles now. It's an honest smile, Rey thinks. Or maybe he is just very good at faking one. "She's a child of the Force. She belongs to no one. She will forever walk alone." The smile grows wider. "And yet we can't help but flock to her, can we?"

Master Kenobi looks like he doesn't trust Thanaton. Rey understands that. "So, what do you propose, Sith?"

"A treaty. This island is neutral territory and no one is allowed to fight here. The child is not to be inconvenienced. Everything else is fair game."

Rey raises her hand. "Sorry to interrupt but do I get that right? You are making treaties about me without me?" Rey doesn't know much about treaties and contracts but she knows that she should be included in the decision making. "And what do you mean with child of the Force?"

Masters Kenobi and Windu and Thanaton stared at each other and then at her. "I think," Darth Thanaton broke the uncomfortable silence, "you should ask the Master of this island about this. As for us, we wait."

Rey eyes all of them distrustful. "If you even think about ordering me around or discussing me, I will ... " She trails off. She's not sure what she will do. "I will never talk to you again. Never." There, that feels better.

"Young child, you still have much to learn." Thanaton seems amused. "Threats for example."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I can see Mace and Obi-Wan bickering like that. They had decades to get used to it and now it's just second nature.  
> Thanaton: play swtor to get to know more about him. Also, wookieepedia. I like him and that's why he gets an appearance. The thing with Jakku? headcanon but I can totally see him doing that.  
> Saying that Rey is a child of the Force is also headcanon but will be important. Explanations in the next chapter.


End file.
